Obviously as teachers we do different things in our lessons and have different ways of doing things.
So I thought I would be a little nosey and find out what kind of things you all do when you are giving casual lessons.

Obviously with exams you have to do certain things but if someone is just singing for fun what do you do with…[Read more]

So I have just taken on a new student who has quite severe autism. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions on extremely simple songs as well as exciting fast paced excersizes that I could do with him so that he enjoys his lessons and doesn’t get bored and also so that I can keep his attention.

A lot of the time I let my students pick their songs. Obviously if it’s too difficult for the level that they are at I give them a couple other choices, but a couple of songs that are relatively simple or easy to simplify are:

Make you feel my love – Adele
Let her go – Passenger
Roar – Katy Perry (recently found out that this is…[Read more]

I only have a couple of ideas with this but again it will be trial and error.
When it comes to the rhythm repetition is sometimes the only way to go. I have sat with a song that the student has picked and got them to count all the way through the song. This gave them an understanding of 1….2….3….4…. and I explained to them…[Read more]

Eliza! Great Idea about the practice room. I always love going somewhere with soundproofing and really going for it.
It’s a great idea suggesting things like that to students and lots of students especially Uni students don’t want to sing at home because they are worried what their mates and people around them will think.

No she isn’t able to sing them at all, I decided to do something a little different with her and discovered that it isn’t just about confidence but also about being so frustrated with herself that she shuts down.

I spoke to her about it at the end of her lesson last week and we had a much better lesson this week. She said she wasn’t…[Read more]

Thanks for this Eliza! This is great, at the end of the day it all seems to come down to patience.

I really don’t mind as long as she is having fun and enjoys it. I only get frustrated because I see the potential in her and I know that she can really sing and her confidence is the only thing that is getting in the way.

Students can always improve but I am aware that there comes a time when students become very good at singing melodies to songs but have no idea how to sing harmonies or even what a harmony is. I like to mix things up a bit and for those students who are good singers give them a bit of an extra challenge.

The only thing I can think of is looking at some of the Community Youth Events that are going on. Some of them do open mics and they re typically for people between the ages of 13 and 18. I know we did them in Leicester 2 or 3 times a year. I’m sure there must be someone in Nottingham that does the same kind of thing.